People have been screaming from rooftops for a month now about the PASS election process, ever since a beloved member of our SQL Server community was shunned in his bid to run for the PASS Board of Directors. The community has reacted vocally. PASS has reacted defensively. And unfortunately much of the back and forth has been speaking “at” each other rather than “with” each other.
Watching this has been almost as bad as watching someone burn bacon! Almost.
Kevin Kline (blog, twitter) has asked a number of leaders in the community to participate in the discussion through a series of guest posts on his blog. I believe that he’s trying is to bring the various sides together in a constructive way. With all of this passion in the community, we should be able to improve things. This is my contribution to the series.
Before going further, however, I’d like to first frame the discussion by describing the essentials of the debate as I see them. There are certainly a lot of nuances, however insomuch as the different facets can have one voice, I’ve tried to capture that. There will be, of course, deeper issues and varying opinions. And it’s entirely possible that I’ve missed the point altogether.
The Community Side
Steve Jones (blog, twitter) has proven himself time and again to be a staunch advocate for the community. His qualifications for community leadership are unmatched.
He’s a renowned SQL Server expert and Microsoft MVP
He has the media experience that PASS once coveted
He’s a good businessman with a proven track record of success
He’s a polished speaker and regular blogger
He frequently donates his time at conferences, SQLSaturdays, and User Group meetings
He’s wildly popular in the community
Steve would easily navigate the Nominating Committee (NomCom) and most certainly be elected. So I thought when I wrote a recommendation letter that accompanied his application.
Like most in the community, I was utterly shocked when I learned that he didn’t make the final cut. Many, if not most, in the community were outraged. And rightfully so. The NomCom rejected someone that the community obviously wanted, someone who would most certainly have been elected if allowed to be on the ballot.
But, this isn’t about Steve. This isn’t even about the election. This is about PASS putting itself before the community that it supposedly represents.
The PASS Side
For the past few years, PASS has taken quite a bit of heat from the community to be more transparent in its processes and decision making. The community doesn’t want a benevolent dictator; it wants peers who are willing to lead on our behalf because we don’t have the time or inclination . That message was made clear years ago.
Since then, PASS has worked really hard in this area and has made clear progress in many, many ways. Its finances are posted for all to see. Unabridged meeting minutes are published on the web just a few days after each board meeting. More of the board members and key volunteers blog about their PASS activities than ever before. We asked for transparency and we’re getting it. All we have to do is log on and look at the information as it’s made available.
The NomCom, which has bore the brunt of the community’s ire for the election controversy, is a prime example of the newfound transparency. The NomCom is charged with vetting each candidate and presenting a slate before the board. Before the NomCom was formed, the procedures and guidelines under which it was to operate were created and distributed for review. After a series of reforms and tweaks, the NomCom was given its marching orders and asked to do their job.
After weeks of work, the NomCom, a group of our peers that we’ve entrusted to do the grueling grunt work for us, reached a conclusion using the formulas and procedures given it. The NomCom members realized that their conclusion would be questioned and controversial. And they paused to reflect on that.
The question: Should the NomCom discard the quantitative results and replace them with on its own subjective feelings? Should it do what it felt the community really wanted by disposing of the pesky procedures that had been so carefully refined?
To do that would have really opened the doors to allegations of PASS being an old-boy-network . To discard the rules at its own discretion and pick the candidate it thought best would be the height arrogance.
The NomCom was in a pickle. Stick with the approved procedure and eliminate a popular candidate? Or dispense with the approved procedures and make a subjective call? You can’t win with those as your two options.
So they made the call to accept the wrath they they knew was sure to come. They stuck to the approved procedures set forth in the NomCom’s mandate. The integrity of the process is too important to toss it aside. It would be a huge step backward in the quest for transparency to do anything else.
I thank the members of NomCom for serving. I also commend them for doing what they believed to be the right thing even though they knew it may not be popular. That takes guts. It takes character. It takes integrity.
And it’s people who possess those characteristics that we want leading the community.
So Who’s Right?
To me the answer is obvious: both sides are right. On the one hand, I’m very frustrated that the candidate for whom I wanted to vote wasn’t on the ballot. I cast my ballot yesterday and it felt a bit hollow.
Yet I would have been equally, if not more, angered if the established process had been subverted to put Steve on the ballot at the expense of one of the other candidates.
The NomCom is not at fault here. The PASS Board is not at fault here.
At fault here are the procedures that governed the election process. I have every confidence that those procedures were far better than in prior years. Yet in this case, as extreme as it may be, they fell woefully short.
Where Do We Go From Here?
I think that the one thing on which we can agree is that we don’t want to find ourselves in this predicament twelve or twenty-four months from now. We want to learn from this, take corrective action, and move forward.
So what do we need to do to ensure that this doesn’t happen again?
Acknowledge that it was the process that failed and stop pointing fingers at our peers
Take heart that we have a slate full of good candidates even if our preferred candidate was left out
Accept partial responsibility for the community and get more involved
Should we throw the baby out with the bathwater and dispense with the NomCom? I don’t think so, but it’s a conversation that should take place.
Should we refine the existing procedures to handle situations like this? We must be careful in codifying too many things since situations will arise in the future where flexibility is required.
We need to have these conversations.
A Note About Transparency
Many years ago when Kevin Kline was the VP of Finance for PASS and I was Director of Logistics, we shared a cab to the airport after a Community Summit event. During the ride, we talked. I remember telling him that as a member of Ducks Unlimited, I receive an annual financial statement from the conservancy. It contains detailed information about the group’s finances. Knowing that makes me feel good about giving to the group.
I commented that as Directors of PASS, we should provide that kind of information to our members. And if we are not comfortable delivering that level of detail, we should do something about our finances so that we are comfortable with it. It took a while, but we did. We changed management companies and implemented a lot of other changes for the better. We took the first of many steps toward better fiscal and procedural transparency.
PASS is no longer a monolith that speaks with one voice. It has truly made great strides toward being a group of our friends and colleagues who are willing to freely give of themselves for our benefit. That’s not to say that PASS has completed its journey toward transparency. It hasn’t, but it is much further down the road than it was just a few short years ago when Kevin and I had that conversation.
And this is another opportunity to further refine the way PASS works, for the better.
People have been screaming from rooftops for a month now about the PASS election process, ever since a beloved member of our SQL Server community was shunned in his bid to run for the PASS Board of Directors. The community has reacted vocally. PASS has reacted defensively. And unfortunately much of the back and forth has been speaking “at” each other rather than “with” each other.Watching this has been almost as bad as watching someone burn bacon! Almost.
Kevin Kline (blog, twitter) has asked a number of leaders in the community to participate in the discussion through a series of guest posts on his blog. I believe that he’s trying is to bring the various sides together in a constructive way. With all of this passion in the community, we should be able to improve things. This is my contribution to the series.
Before going further, however, I’d like to first frame the discussion by describing the essentials of the debate as I see them. There are certainly a lot of nuances, however insomuch as the different facets can have one voice, I’ve tried to capture that. There will be, of course, deeper issues and varying opinions. And it’s entirely possible that I’ve missed the point altogether.
The Community Side
Steve Jones (blog, twitter) has proven himself time and again to be a staunch advocate for the community. His qualifications for community leadership are unmatched.
He’s a renowned SQL Server expert and Microsoft MVP
He has the media experience that PASS once coveted
He’s a good businessman with a proven track record of success
He’s a polished speaker and regular blogger
He frequently donates his time at conferences, SQLSaturdays, and User Group meetings
He’s wildly popular in the community
Steve would easily navigate the Nominating Committee (NomCom) and most certainly be elected. So I thought when I wrote a recommendation letter that accompanied his application.
Like most in the community, I was utterly shocked when I learned that he didn’t make the final cut. Many, if not most, in the community were outraged. And rightfully so. The NomCom rejected someone that the community obviously wanted, someone who would most certainly have been elected if allowed to be on the ballot.
But, this isn’t about Steve. This isn’t even about the election. This is about PASS putting itself before the community that it supposedly represents.
The PASS Side
For the past few years, PASS has taken quite a bit of heat from the community to be more transparent in its processes and decision making. The community doesn’t want a benevolent dictator; it wants peers who are willing to lead on our behalf because we don’t have the time or inclination . That message was made clear years ago.
Since then, PASS has worked really hard in this area and has made clear progress in many, many ways. Its finances are posted for all to see. Unabridged meeting minutes are published on the web just a few days after each board meeting. More of the board members and key volunteers blog about their PASS activities than ever before. We asked for transparency and we’re getting it. All we have to do is log on and look at the information as it’s made available.
The NomCom, which has bore the brunt of the community’s ire for the election controversy, is a prime example of the newfound transparency. The NomCom is charged with vetting each candidate and presenting a slate before the board. Before the NomCom was formed, the procedures and guidelines under which it was to operate were created and distributed for review. After a series of reforms and tweaks, the NomCom was given its marching orders and asked to do their job.
After weeks of work, the NomCom, a group of our peers that we’ve entrusted to do the grueling grunt work for us, reached a conclusion using the formulas and procedures given it. The NomCom members realized that their conclusion would be questioned and controversial. And they paused to reflect on that.
The question: Should the NomCom discard the quantitative results and replace them with on its own subjective feelings? Should it do what it felt the community really wanted by disposing of the pesky procedures that had been so carefully refined?
To do that would have really opened the doors to allegations of PASS being an old-boy-network . To discard the rules at its own discretion and pick the candidate it thought best would be the height arrogance.
The NomCom was in a pickle. Stick with the approved procedure and eliminate a popular candidate? Or dispense with the approved procedures and make a subjective call? You can’t win with those as your two options.
So they made the call to accept the wrath they they knew was sure to come. They stuck to the approved procedures set forth in the NomCom’s mandate. The integrity of the process is too important to toss it aside. It would be a huge step backward in the quest for transparency to do anything else.
I thank the members of NomCom for serving. I also commend them for doing what they believed to be the right thing even though they knew it may not be popular. That takes guts. It takes character. It takes integrity.
And it’s people who possess those characteristics that we want leading the community.
So Who’s Right?
To me the answer is obvious: both sides are right. On the one hand, I’m very frustrated that the candidate for whom I wanted to vote wasn’t on the ballot. I cast my ballot yesterday and it felt a bit hollow.
Yet I would have been equally, if not more, angered if the established process had been subverted to put Steve on the ballot at the expense of one of the other candidates.
The NomCom is not at fault here. The PASS Board is not at fault here.
At fault here are the procedures that governed the election process. I have every confidence that those procedures were far better than in prior years. Yet in this case, as extreme as it may be, they fell woefully short.
Where Do We Go From Here?
I think that the one thing on which we can agree is that we don’t want to find ourselves in this predicament twelve or twenty-four months from now. We want to learn from this, take corrective action, and move forward.
So what do we need to do to ensure that this doesn’t happen again?
Acknowledge that it was the process that failed and stop pointing fingers at our peers
Take heart that we have a slate full of good candidates even if our preferred candidate was left out
Accept partial responsibility for the community and get more involved
Should we throw the baby out with the bathwater and dispense with the NomCom? I don’t think so, but it’s a conversation that should take place.
Should we refine the existing procedures to handle situations like this? We must be careful in codifying too many things since situations will arise in the future where flexibility is required.
We need to have these conversations.
A Note About Transparency
Many years ago when Kevin Kline was the VP of Finance for PASS and I was Director of Logistics, we shared a cab to the airport after a Community Summit event. During the ride, we talked. I remember telling him that as a member of Ducks Unlimited, I receive an annual financial statement from the conservancy. It contains detailed information about the group’s finances. Knowing that makes me feel good about giving to the group.
I commented that as Directors of PASS, we should provide that kind of information to our members. And if we are not comfortable delivering that level of detail, we should do something about our finances so that we are comfortable with it. It took a while, but we did. We changed management companies and implemented a lot of other changes for the better. We took the first of many steps toward better fiscal and procedural transparency.
PASS is no longer a monolith that speaks with one voice. It has truly made great strides toward being a group of our friends and colleagues who are willing to freely give of themselves for our benefit. That’s not to say that PASS has completed its journey toward transparency. It hasn’t, but it is much further down the road than it was just a few short years ago when Kevin and I had that conversation.
And this is another opportunity to further refine the way PASS works, for the better.
Do I have a dog in this Fight? If I did, it'd be the Warner Brothers Barnyard Dog.
After my term of service on the PASS board of directors ended in December of 2009, I fully intended to stay far, far out of the way. It’s an intention that I’ve largely been able to fulfill,excluding the odd conversation with an occasional board member or committee chair looking for a little impartial advice when weighing some consideration or other.
If you keep up with going’s on within PASS, then you’ll know that there’s been some hullabaloo lately. Please reference paragraph 1 again at this point to understand that I don’t really know much about all this hullabaloo. (I read one blog post by Stuart Ainsworth and decided to henceforth avoid all other mention of the situation). I mentioned that I’ve been trying to stay out of PASS’ way, correct? But sometimes you just can’t dodge a bullet, even when you’re bustin’ out some Matrix-like moves and goin’ all Neo/Keanu Reeves on it.
To wit, I was happy to volunteer in hosting our first Music City SQL Saturday, which also happened to occur the day after the PASS board of directors wrapped up their quarterly meeting here in beautiful (and hot) Nashville, TN. The two events were destined by the stars to overlap. Which also meant I was going to be hearing about said hullabaloo (reference paragraph 2, above), despite my better efforts to get out of its (the hullabaloo’s) way.
(I’m being a bit disingenuous about being surprised that these events having some overlap. I hosted a party at my house the Friday before our SQL Saturday for our event speakers and also invited all of the PASS directors and staff who were still in town as well. So they were all coming together, like neutrons hurtling towards a chunk of uranium 236. You DO KNOW what happens when neutrons are hurtled at uranium 236, right?).
Yeah, and then what?
Foghorn's idea of a dog fight
So despite trying to steer clear any PASS-related controversies, I’m compelled to speak up, albeit in as limited a fashion as I can manage. Most of the people involved, from candidates to committee members, are friends. I wrote endorsement letters for almost half of the candidates who made it to the Nomination Committee (NomCom) interview stage. So I’m far from being a totally impartial judge of how individual persons were treated. But, for what it’s worth, I’m trying to make my post less about personalities and more about the overall direction of the process. In other words, I’m trying to be constructive, not destructive.
A lot of people have put out opinions about the PASS Election process and you can read more yourself here:
Since the call to vote is now open, I hope you’ll take some time to get informed about the overall process as well as the candidates standing for election.
So what’s your point?
Lots of people have complained about lots of things in this round of elections (so far), but what’s anyone going to do about it? Well, my point in this and subsequent blog posts is to produce recommendations about the election process that will better it for PASS and the wider community.
I’ve asked several friends in the SQL Server community, as well as individuals unrelated to PASS or SQL Server but who have experience on corporate boards of directors, to join a group discussion focusing on the question:
Tit-for-Tat, eh Foghorn?
“Many in the community seem to think that the PASS election process is badly broken. Do you think that PASS needs to implement fundamental and far-reaching changes to its election process, or does it only need some fine tuning? Please explain your thoughts?”
So now that some of the personal aspects of the discussions have calmed down, the main point I want to make is that we can make this better. But this will take a concerted and focused discussion to decide on the consensus.
Guest posters are waiting in the wings. Let the discussions begin!
To forward this discussions, I’ve asked guest posters to make open with their initial thoughts on their own blogs or here, for those who don’t have their own blogs. Some have already posted their opening thoughts, which I will repost here. Once the opening statements are all posted, we’ll begin to work through the various points and topics (refer to the PASS discussion forums above) to see if we can drive consensus for concrete methods and steps for the nominations and election processes.
With that, you’re also invited to participate. If you have thoughts around process (not personalities), I invite you to participate either through posting comments here and on our future posts and, if you’re interested, to participate as a guest poster yourself.
Watch a full interview with Kevin Kline, president of PASS and technical strategy manager, SQL Server, Quest Software as he discusses the evolution of SQL Server.
I’m speaking tonight on Top 10 Mistakes DBAs Make at the Atlanta SQL Server User Group meeting in Alpharetta, GA. You can find all of the details here.
The Best Dang Design Book for SQL Server Professionals - EVER!
I thought I’d liven things up a bit with a little contest. The rules are simple:
A. If you don’t follow me on Twitter, then follow me by clicking here.
B. If you already follow me on Twitter, then tweet the details for tonight’s event.
C. Every new follower or current follower who retweeted the details and then attends the event tonight will get a free ebook for Professional SQL Server 2008 Design and Implementationby my buddy and fellow Nashvillian Louis Davidson (blog | twitter).
As the fine print usually says, “Must be present to win”. But just to liven things up a little bit extra, I’ll pull several names from the hat of all the folks who were NOT present but followed or retweeted the event details between now and 6:30 PM EST tonight.
Ok, I admit it. I’ve done about as good a job publicizing my monthly professional development column, Plays Well With Others, as NBC did when the transitioned Jay Leno back to the Tonight Show.
So I’m going to try to better, henceforth and forever more! Two entries ago, I talked about the The 8 Characteristics of Exceptional Leaders. This month, I’m drilling into the characteristic on that list that generated the most controversy in emails and messages – “Absolute Integrity”. Many people took issue with the concept that integrity can be learned, instead believing that integrity is innate, like a sense of humor or a dancer’s rhythm.
What do you think? Read the article here and weigh in with your opinion! (Be forewarned – the PASS website is free, but does require registration. And I encourage you to do so since there are many other great resources there to take advantage of.)
Let me be direct with you. I love SQL Saturday. If it were a woman, I’d marry it. (Avoiding all extraneous thoughts of what my real wife would say, etc etc).
Check out this fun Flickr Feed from the recent SQL Saturday in Chicago or these picks by Jorge Segara (blog | twitter) to see the sort of fun that’s in store. But who can argue with a day of free SQL Server training and a chance to network with great presenters and a wide swath of your peers?
Keynotes are more fun when the put-downs fly!
I’ve tried to support SQL Saturday as much as I can since Andy Warren (blog | twitter) launched the program a couple years back and have spoken at several. You might say to yourself, “Self, Kevin works for a vendor. Don’t they want him to speak at as many SQL Saturdays as is humanly possible?” Well, Mr. Self, you’d be mistaken. You see there’s a keyword in the name that might reveal why my employer doesn’t provide unlimited enthusiasm for me to speak … it’s the SATURDAY part of the whole thing. Yes, of course, my employer wants me there. But they also recognize that Saturdays are my own and that, if I spend a day or two there on the weekend (including the travel time), then that’s a sacrifice of my own choice. I would still need to be at work and on task bright and early on Monday morning. Not that they’d make me, it’s just that my job is the sort that work is never simply skipped, it is only ever deferred. So if I took a comp day, which they’d gladly provide, I’d still have to finish the work somehow, someway. All of this goes to say that I really, really love SQL Saturday, the community vibe that it creates, the volunteers who drive it, the folks who attend. So I’m happy to give up a few days throughout the year to support it.
Come to Nashville in August!
Guitar, Cowboy Boots, Cowboy Hat, and Tight Denim NOT Required
My good friends Joe Webb (blog | twitter) and Louis Davidson (blog | twitter) have been angling to host a SQL Saturday here in Nashville for quite a while. As co-leaders of the local PASS chapter in middle Tennessee, it made a lot of sense to host an event like this. I wasn’t at all resistant to the idea, I just didn’t want to do the work myself. However, they did a great job of getting the ball rolling and even took on the majority of work themselves. Together with other volunteers in our local chapter – Shelton Dickson, Roberto Lopez, and Christina Leo – we’ve all set to work to host SQL Saturday #51.
The event will be hosted on Saturday, August 21st at the shiny new facility of Nashville State Community College located at 120 White Bridge Rd. Nashville, TN 37209:
If you’d like to attend, check out all the details here. Joe Webb and Christina Leo get all the credit for logistics.
If you’d like to speak, read the details in our call for speakers here. Louis Davidson is running the program selection process.
If you’d like to sponsor, sign up on-line here. This one is my responsibility.
It’s free to register, there is a $10 fee if you want us to provide lunch. And remember, seats always fill up fast!
If you’re going to attend and you have a twitter account, be sure to tweet using #sqlsat51!
PASS is looking forward to having you join us all for this exceptional event. Please contact us at 24hrs@sqlpass.org with any questions. You can also find lots of general details at http://www.sqlpass.org/24hours/2010/.
I freely admit it – I’m a sluggard. I should be blogging a couple times per week and tweeting in between. But, for some unknown reason, April has been a tough month to get this in gear. Hence, I’m putting out an omnibus post to cover all of the stuff I’ve been up to, instead of the one-off’s I usually post when I’ve got something new to mention.
Isn’t it funny how life gets in the way of the stuff we want and intend to do? As they say – “The road to hell is paved with good intentions”, or was that Detroit? But I digress.
A New Translation!
I don’t like to toot my own horn. [sarcasm on] You can tell that I’m completely honest when I say that since I have a couple blogs and a twitter account. [sarcasm off] But one thing I’m really proud of is how popular SQL in a Nutshell is. It’s now translated into approximately eight languages, with Russian being the newest language:
I'm even more proud of my lil' girl than that book!
I also had the pleasure of working with another translator and I’m looking forward to having a copy of the book in simplified Chinese soon too!
Lots of Speaking Events Coming!
There will be more details on my Events page soon, but here’s the run down on what’s just around the corner:
Aug 5-7; DevLink in Nashville, TN; several sessions throughout the conference
I also have three “Pain of the Week” webcasts schedule with Quest over the next couple months, with great co-hosts like Buck Woody and Grant Fritchey. The sessions aren’t officially scheduled yet, but you can find them here.
Also, a big thanks to the local PASS chapter in Houston for the warm welcome they put out when I spoke there on April 12 and to the fine folks in Chicago for their awesome SQL Saturday on April 17th.
I made an appearance on Microsoft’s Thrive website as their IT Pro of the Month for March. I also had the opportunity to work with Steve Wynkoop at his SSWUG.org vConference in March.
Join me tomorrow for the PASS DBA Virtual Chapter meeting SQL Server Internals & Architecture. It’s the most fun you’ll ever have learning about the inner workings of a relational database – I promise!
You don’t have to register to attend. But if you register today, you’ll be entered into the drawing to win one two copies of my bestselling reference SQL in a Nutshell, covering the ANSI standard plus Oracle 11, SQL Server 2008, MySQL 5.2, and PostgreSQL 8.3.
This is NOT the Chameleon in the Bud-Wise-ER commercials. At least I think it's not.
I’ve put the slide deck up in my Slides area of the website. However, because it contains a lot of big images, I had to publish it as a PDF file to meet my size limits. That means that all of the animations in the slide deck are shot – and this presentation relies heavily on animation.
Notice the bluetooth ear piece fashion faux pas? Yes, she's truly a geek.
I’m happy to report that Barbie is now a cognizeti, a digerati, … yes even an IT Professional! This year’s new Barbie is Computer Engineer Barbie.
Several months back, I encouraged all my friends and followers on Twitter to vote for the IT job for Barbie in Mattel’s recent public job selection for the eponymous doll. That encouragement was founded in an experience I’d had years earlier – becoming a dad to a very beautiful baby girl. When I was growing up as a kid, I clearly recall how odd it was for a woman to have a career outside of a handful of “traditional feminine jobs” like teacher, nurse, telephone operator or secretary. It wasn’t until years later, as a new dad, that I realized how asinine this preconceived notion really was (and, in fact, still is in many cultures around the world). I even wrote about this a few years ago in my personal blog, where I mentioned how I’d love to see my daughters grow up and take on an IT career.
Sadly, many IT professional societies report dramatic imbalances in gender demographics. For example, the IEEE Computer Society reports that their membership is only 7% female. Similarly, universities in the USA shows about a 10% representation of female faculty and 14% of their students in computer-related majors.
One of the things I’d always found to be rather amazing about PASS was it’s strong emphasis on Women in Technology (WIT). In fact, as far as database professional societies go, PASS was the first to work hard to make WIT prominent within its culture (although I believe that the International Sybase User Group had a WIT group before PASS). I’d like to also give credit to the women within PASS who made this happen. I can’t even begin to list them all here, but without them, WIT at PASS would not have been possible. A few women who immediately come to mind include Rebecca Laszlo, , Kalen Delaney, Denise McInerny, Kathi Kellenberger, Stefanie Higgins, Lynda Rabb, Kimberly Tripp, and many many more.
All of these outstanding women deserve accolades for making PASS a welcoming place for women. Don’t think that it’s a big deal? You should attend an IT conference without a strong WIT community – you’ll see the difference in 30 seconds flat. (I’m not going to name any names here. But attend the top conferences for certain IT companies headquartered in Redwood City, California or Armonk, NY and you’ll see what I mean).
So, thank you ladies, for making PASS in particular and the overall Microsoft SQL Server community much better for everyone by making it better for women. I hope to see this trend continue and for your contributions to continue to improve our community.
People have been screaming from rooftops for a month now about the PASS election process, ever since a beloved member of our SQL Server community was shunned in his bid to run for the PASS Board of Directors. The community has reacted vocally. PASS has reacted defensively. And unfortunately much of the back and forth has been speaking “at” each other rather than “with” each other.
For the past few years, PASS has taken quite a bit of heat from the community to be more transparent in its processes and decision making. The community doesn’t want a benevolent dictator; it wants peers who are willing to lead on our behalf because we don’t have the time or inclination . That message was made clear years ago.
Many years ago when Kevin Kline was the VP of Finance for PASS and I was Director of Logistics, we shared a cab to the airport after a Community Summit event. During the ride, we talked. I remember telling him that as a member of Ducks Unlimited, I receive an annual financial statement from the conservancy. It contains detailed information about the group’s finances. Knowing that makes me feel good about giving to the group.
